Back with another accessibility review, this time for Eurovision 2023 back in May. I’ll be focusing on our train journeys (with London Northwestern Railway and Mersey Rail) and the hotel (Travelodge Wallasey New Brighton). I have previously reviewed the Eurovision venue (Liverpool M&S Bank Arena) and did add in some Eurovision specific points to that review.
(Disclaimer: I’m aware “accessibility” means different things to different people, as I said before, these are MY views on my experience of accessibility at this venue as an electric wheelchair user, I obviously can’t speak for others experiences but feel free to add your experiences in the comments!)
Trains
The tickets to Liverpool were booked via Trainline and the assistance was booked via the Passenger Assistance App. As my friend Lizzie and I were travelling together and are both wheelchair users I thought this might be tricky. But there were two wheelchair spaces opposite each other on our trains to and from Liverpool so that was simpler than expected.
When we arrived in Liverpool we discovered that, due to closures for Eurovision, Mersey Rail was not running from Liverpool Lime Street or James Street. So, we headed over to Liverpool Central to catch the train. Once we arrived, we got our Mersey Rail travel cards and let the staff know where we wanted to go. I was impressed with Mersey Rail assistance as it seemed to very much be a Turn Up and Go system which allowed us to travel just like everyone else. The only problem with Mersey Rail was that there’s just one wheelchair space (at least on the New Brighton line we were travelling on). This meant I took the wheelchair space and Lizzie parked in the aisle, but it would have been preferable for us both to be parked in wheelchair spaces.
Hotel
We stayed at the Travelodge Wallasey New Brighton and booked and accessible room online. One major point is that the hotel is down a big hill if you’re coming from New Brighton station so you may want to factor that in. The accessible room was a standard accessible room with wet room and was good quality with everything we needed. Well except adequate plug points, but we were expecting that as 2 wheelchair users travelling together with technology as well, so we brought an extension cable. My one major issue with the hotel was that there was just one lift, and it was a small one. This meant we had to travel separately each time using the lift and also left me wondering what we would do in the event that the lift broke down.
Overall, I enjoyed this trip and would happily use both train companies and stay at this particular hotel again.
Stay Invincible!
Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)
Invincible Woman on Wheels 